Fortumo Launches Direct Carrier Billing with SingTel

February 11, 2014 01:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

TARTU, Estonia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The mobile payments company Fortumo is today announcing direct carrier
billing with SingTel, the leading mobile operator in Singapore. In
addition to Singapore, Fortumo already has strong presence in the
region, powering payments in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and
rapid expansion planned for the near future.

Fortumo has previously announced direct carrier billing partnerships
with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom in Asia and with
Telefónica, Telenor, Swisscom and Kyivstar in other parts of the world.
Fortumo direct carrier billing payments now cover 2.5 billion users.

Direct carrier billing lets users make payments over a data connection
by confirming payments with one click on their phone. Since the mobile
operator has all the information necessary to process the payment, this
removes the need to send any text messages during the payment process.
In markets where Fortumo provides direct carrier billing, payment
conversion for first-time payments is close to 40% and higher for repeat
purchases.

Operator billing has the biggest potential in emerging markets where
most users do not have a credit card but almost everyone has access to a
mobile phone. Indonesia for example has three times more mobile phones
than payment cards. The Philippines has 15 phone owners for each card
owner. Without operator billing, digital and virtual goods merchants are
not able to collect payments from a majority of people living in these
countries.

In 2013, Asia Pacific took the global lead in spending on digital
content. Revenue from digital gaming reached an estimated 16.3 billion
USD in 2013, compared to 12.9 billion USD in North America and 10.8
billion USD in Europe. South-East Asian countries also have some of the
biggest spending on mobile entertainment. Fortumo in-app payment data on
Android shows that the monthly average revenue per paying users in
countries like Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia is close to 20 USD. In
Western markets these numbers are lower - 6.9 USD for the United States
and 11.2 USD for the United Kingdom.

Fortumo is the only mobile payment provider with a self-service setup
and no monthly fees or minimum volume commitments - any developer,
regardless of size and location can sign up for an account and get
started with mobile payments at fortumo.com.

About Fortumo

Fortumo allows any merchant to set up payment processing for web and
mobile services, games or apps. Users with a mobile phone are then able
to make one-click payments using Fortumo without the need for a credit
card - payments are charged to their mobile operator bill instead.
Fortumo payments are cross-platform and work in PC applications, web
services and HTML5, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps. Fortumo
supports payments in 80 countries through 300 mobile operators,
including a number of exclusive direct carrier billing partnerships.
Founded in 2007, Fortumo has offices in Estonia, San Francisco, Beijing
and Delhi and is backed by Intel Capital and Greycroft Partners.

Aboust SingTel

SingTel is a leading communications group providing a portfolio of
services including voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and
Internet platforms as well as infocomm technology and pay TV. The Group
has presence in Asia and Africa with 462 million mobile customers in 26
countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the
Philippines and Thailand. It also has a vast network of offices
throughout Asia Pacific and Europe.